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Creative writing

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Do you notice previous drafts start looking really amateur when you edit ?

6 replies

johann12 · 13/08/2024 00:06

It's a good thing, but I end up picking it apart and restructuring my story over and over again. I look at my first drafts and think, how stupid is this ? And it's weird, because I had thought it was good before. I've never written more than a very short story till now. It's hard to get it right. I feel like I'm playing pretend in a way, that I'm doing something silly that probably will never amount to anything. But I love doing it

OP posts:
johann12 · 13/08/2024 00:30

I feel like I write really glib

OP posts:
larkstar · 15/08/2024 23:10

Seeing as no one else has answered...

The first thing I think you've got right is that you've said you're doing it because you love it! (and not because you want to be published or to make money. A friend of mine has this year just given up trying to write lesbian fiction - she was very much impressed with a lesbian/feminist writer and lecturer at her university who, she says, had made her think that this was a good target market - I'm not sure how much this was influence or inspiration (from her tutor) or simply self divination - she says she doesn't know anyone who wasn't writing to make a living from it - I said I knew no one who was!)

I've read and listened to so many interviews with artists and writers of all kinds who have all come to the same thought: that you, the writer, the creator, are the first and solitary audience of one for your work and that's who you write for first and foremost - I was listening to an interview on Youtube only this morning with jazz pianist Bill Evans saying exactly this.

Stephen King had said the same thing - he suggests that you put your first draft in a drawer for 6 weeks and go off and do other, sometimes shorter, writing projects before you come back to the draft with fresh eyes.

I wouldn't focus too much attention to your criticism about the draft - Paul Simon said "great songs aren't written - they're re-written"
but it's a balancing act - if you're being objective you might have some valid points but I'd try and think more about your powers of invention and ingenuity to transform "your" draft - it's yours and you can do what you like with it. You obviously must have had, and probably still have, some conviction or belief in your idea and what you've written so far so I wouldn't back down just because it starts to look difficult to move forwards with it - use your creative, analytical and logical powers to work out what your options are to transform what you already have - I don't think you have to be cut-throat about it - I have found through years of song writing in particular that the smallest twist or addition can completely transform something that seems bland and pointless into something fresh and kicking. The example I'll give is one I've talked about elsewhere in the past. I was helping a friend with a song about his strange, lonely existence, living in the unpeopled wide rural expanses of Oregon - I put one line into his song that completely changed what was simply an atmospheric song about driving in the lonely backwoods into something much darker and sinister - the line was about driving "with a pretty little girl in the back of my car" - it's a connection made, I think, with my impression of the strange stories I hear coming from rural America, about the murders, feuds and abductions in very isolated areas where normal rules of law or morals sometimes break down. It also taps into dark, deep rooted fears which we all share - I see this as "groundwater" - it connects all of us - so going deeper emotionally is one way to look for new ways to connect your story with the reader - look at what we all share. I tend to look at drafts of my songs in layers knowing that I am weak in some aspects - the deeper emotional content is one Iayer, probably the main one, I have to work at - for me, of I've written something that feels 2-dimensional, it's strengthening this emotional dimension that helps make it stand up in 3-dimensions.

Sorry can't be more helpful other than to say that most of us have doubts about what we create right up until that moment where we find the missing pieces and there's always things missing from first drafts.

johann12 · 16/08/2024 06:24

I can't say I don't think about money, it's there, but at the same time, I've got into a routine of writing for a couple of hours a day, and I think I'd be lost without it. My idea isn't exactly original, it actually came to me in a dream and I was so struck by it I started the story. I have been working on creating an insight into my character's personality and I agree that is really important. I feel sometimes like I'm bullying her with the plot, lol. It's my first experience of writing long- form, so I appreciate your comments. I do think I will probably rewrite a lot of it over and over till I'm happy

OP posts:
umarmalik · 16/08/2024 20:33

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larkstar · 23/08/2024 16:53

@johann12 when you talk about restructuring and things being amateurish - what do you mean? Simply that on re-reading you had better ideas that made more sense given that you had then gone on to write more afterwards? I don't think that is surprising - it's a process isn't it? I've looked at a lot of painting videos as this is something else I've been doing and it's through them that I've "drawn" some parallels and why I think about my redrafting as looking at what I do when writing as paying attention to different layers - I don;t think you can be fully focussed on every aspect of a piece of fiction - the plot, the characters, the different elements relating to time, the scenes, thinking about how your descriptive writing, unfolding characters, unfolding events appeal to the reader, changes in mood, the balance of certainty and uncertainty - there's so much to think about - I don't think it's reasonable that in a first draft you can pay attention to all of these aspects. Painters often put a sketch down first, then may underpaint with a warm or a cool colour wash depending on the warm of cool tone they want the finished painting to have, then maybe some dull, dark, subdued colours from one palette, then some very contrasting brighter, lighter, zingier colours to highlight certain parts of a scene or portrait perhaps, in full light and they consider balance - the picture shouldn't be lob-sided with too much fine detail or too much of one hue/colour or tone on one side or in one area - it has to be done in layers - you have to stand back and consider the overall effect - isn't writing much the same? It's probably easier with a painting because you take in everything on a small canvas quite easily - harder to do with 250 pages of text!

Cerialkiller · 23/11/2024 09:02

It's very easy to be self conscious about your own work. Without the thought process when you were writing the thing, it's easy to pick out things that feel trite, clumsy etc.

It's important to learn the difference between taste and genuine problems.

I find having a writing group or other outside perspective. Firstly they will give you feedback on stuff you haven't noticed (being deep in your own world) also will reassure you of good things and general skill.

Secondly I find that having an external party to write for is a good focus for ensure your writing is clear for a reader.

This is on top of the usual benefits of motivation and having accountability to deadlines. My story started as a fun practice project and after I found a decent but small (only 4 people total) group, it's turning into an epic fantasy trilogy.

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